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ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Ambassador to the United States (US) Masood Khan has said that there has been "volatility" in Islamabad's ties with Afghanistan due to the presence of the Pakistani Taliban sanctuaries in the neighboring country, the Pakistani state media reported on Saturday. 

The Pakistani Taliban, or the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), have waged an insurgency in Pakistan over the past 15 years, fighting for stricter enforcement of Islamic laws in the country, the release of their members in government custody and a reduction in the Pakistani military’s presence in the country’s former tribal regions. 

The proscribed group has stepped up attacks on Pakistani security forces after unilaterally ending a cease-fire with the government in Islamabad in November, which was brokered by the Afghan Taliban. 

"There is volatility in bilateral relations owing to hideouts of Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan in Afghanistan," the Radio Pakistan broadcaster quoted Ambassador Khan as saying at the World Affairs Council in Seattle, US. 

The envoy reiterated Islamabad’s principled stance that it would not "tolerate terrorism in any form against Pakistan." 

Khan's statement came as the TTP claimed responsibility for an attack on a police station near the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar and the killing of three police officers who had been chasing the militants after the attack. 

Last month, 33 TTP fighters detained at a counter-terrorism facility in Bannu seized the compound and took staff hostage. The Pakistani army's response killed 25 militants.  

Pakistan has lately ruled out negotiations with militants and called on the Afghan Taliban to keep militant groups from reorganizing on their soil and abide by their commitments made with the international community.